Embracing social media platforms requires significant commitment. Whilst they may be simple to set up and create, hungry channels need regular feeding.

Your social media plan should be about fundamentally delivering on your marketing strategy when it comes to promoting your Employer Brand. So before you launch off, its important to take a step back and think about the bigger picture.

There are 4 key principles to consider when you start to manage social media​

1. Keep people coming back for moreYou can have continuous one-to-one and one-to-many conversations on social media, regardless of the channels you choose. Your potential employees can engage and start to build a relationship with you as a potential employer. You can develop a direct dialogue with your followers and this will build loyalty and rapport, that gives them a reason to keep coming back and sharing more.

2. Give people reasons to apply for your rolesWe live in a "recommendation generation" and more than ever people trust what other people say about your company. Glassdoor is a perfect example of this in action. Potential candidates will do their research before applying for roles and if they see social signals from their friends, or other positive feedback from your employees, and even your clients, then they are more likely to trust these than your own promotional messages.

3. Increase your reachThe social network is very large and the opportunity for your followers and current employees to spread your message is significant. Look at implementing an employee advocacy initiative within your company. Implemented properly, this is easy to control and it's likely that your employees have people within their network who will be perfect for your current and future roles.

4. Increase your effectivenessOne of the key impacts of social media on recruiting is that companies need to have a defined marketing strategy. It's as important as your business marketing strategy and the same principles apply - don't make assumptions about your target audiences and always be looking for areas of improvement.

Creating a strategy to manage social media

Before you start any social media recruiting activity, you need to make sure that your website is up to date. This is the glue that holds everything together and not having a "Work for Us" page on your website is a missed opportunity. Look at some other local businesses, your competitors and a couple of aspirational companies to get ideas on how best to build a careers page on your website.

Once you have everything in place, you have analysed, listened and planned your strategy, you need to look at a content strategy. Content is king and you need a defined content plan to allow you to manage social media easily. Remember that social media creates a continuous conversation, so you need a continuous content plan. There are lots of tools available to help make the day to date management easier and enable scheduling of posts across all channels with one click. Be sure to consider the pro's and con's of each before deciding which one allows you to manage social media most effectively for your company.

The 5 content ingredients to manage social media

1. Content Audit - look at what content you already have and what's missing. Using the information from your listening and analysis, you should be able to identify gaps. Still don't know where to start? Pain points are always a great one. If you finish early on a Friday, or have a special event each month, posting content about it on your social media channels will stand out to those who are not currently working within a culture like yours - but want to! Look at what your competitors are doing, create a survey, use Google Analytics and see what the market is telling you. There's a lot of information out there to help - you just need to know where to look.

2. Content Topics - from the audit, create a content list. Think like a magazine editor and include seasonal inspiration to your posts. There are many types of content that you can create and it's important to think about how best to leverage the different types of media. These include - Videos - an event or view inside the office.Blogs - there is a whole host of things you can do with blogs and it's probably one of the simplest and most common methods used. You need to ensure that you have completed your keyword research and that your content is published across a variety of media. You need the advice of an SEO expert to get the most out of your blogs.FAQs/Q&A - a session with someone in a team that you are recruiting in.Expert advice - maybe something about how to enter your industry.Case studies - showcase a positive story about someone who has been promoted, or recently joined.

3. Content collation - now that you have a content schedule, it's time to collate your content. Get other departments involved and don't leave it all to marketing or HR. If you create a social media culture within your company, then you will find departments regularly sharing content and insights that can be used. It can be a motivational part of a role and involving departments in marketing activities can be a fun journey for people who work in completely different areas of the business.

4. Tone of voice - as you are creating the content, it is important to create clear guidelines about what can and can't be shared, for the strategy and also for any employee advocacy initiatives. You also need to consider the personality behind your employer brand and your tone a voice. A more friendly and informal style is usually the best way forward for Facebook and Twitter, but remember that regardless of this, it needs to fit with your culture.

5. Publishing schedule - now you have a content plan and a personality behind your employer brand, how do you manage social media posting? There are many resources available with up to date information about the most effective times and regularity of posts and it differs for each channel, so be sure to keep up to date with this. To manage social media effectively, create a content plan for daily, weekly, monthly in as much detail as you need.

It does take a lot of effort and advanced planning to manage social media and ensure that it is promoting your employer brand in the right way.

You can do all of this, or you can outsource the whole thing to JobHoller, it's what we love and it's what we do well. Trust your employer brand to the experts. 01244 567 967 / info@jobholler.com

https://jobholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/manage-social-media.jpg450850Effective Strategies to Manage Social Media

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